For The Archives -- US Supreme Court -- Law Of The Land -- Chevron -- June 12, 2024

Locator: 47826SCOTUS.

I'm posting this now for the archives.

I have not read much of it, am vaguely aware of the issue, but want to post this now, and then track it here, on this page.

This is likely to be a huge, huge deal.

First, from Bloomberg today, in it's entirety.

The Labor Department has shifted away from a legal doctrine directing courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable reading of ambiguous laws as it defends against challenges to high-profile wage and overtime rules—a signal that it’s bracing for the US Supreme Court to shred the Chevron standard, Rebecca Rainey reports.

US Justice Department attorneys initially responded that the agency’s rules should be granted Chevron deference—a defense that was later dropped when the cases were appealed. The agency says it’s not necessary to rely on Chevron because the rules expanding overtime pay eligibility and limiting when employers can pay tipped workers a lower minimum wage were issued within DOL’s statutory authority.

The shift in legal strategy comes as agencies brace for the Supreme Court to rule before the end of its term in a pair of cases that could gut or largely scale back Chevron.

Agencies’ silence on Chevron has mounted in recent years, amid growing skepticism of the doctrine, but increased following the high court’s decision last year to take up the issue.

Business groups, seizing on the Chevron abandonment, say it shows the rules are illegal exercises of agency power. 

“The Department’s brief does not mention Chevron even once,” the National Restaurant Association argued in its lawsuit challenging the DOL’s final tipped wages rule, issued in 2021.

That Bloomberg note then ends and links to this page:  

First: 

• Chevron dropped from two Department of Labor (DOL) cases on appeal
• Part of a larger litigation strategy at Justice Department

Then: 

The US Labor Department is abandoning a legal doctrine under which courts defer to agency interpretations of laws as a shield against challenges to some of its most high-profile rulemakings, a sign it’s attempting to head-off the US Supreme Court’s expected gutting of the Chevron standard.

Business groups have cited the 1984 ruling in Chevron Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc. in their arguments against DOL rules expanding overtime pay eligibility and limiting when employers can pay tipped workers a lower minimum wage. They argue that the regulations fail to carry out Congress’ clear direction on the law.

While US Justice Department attorneys representing the DOL initially responded that the agency’s rules should be granted Chevron deference, that defense was later dropped when the cases were appealed.

The agency says it doesn’t need to rely on Chevron because the rules were issued within its statutory authority. However, business groups are seizing on those omissions and arguing they provide evidence that the rules are illegal exercises of agency power.

“The Department’s brief does not mention Chevron even once,” the National Restaurant Association argued in its lawsuit challenging the DOL’s final tipped wages rule, issued in 2021. “Nowhere does the Department expressly contend that the Final Rule satisfies any of the specific steps of the Chevron analysis, much less all of them, as the Final Rule must in order to be valid."

And it continues from there.